How to use Powercfg.exe to create a Group Policy object for power schemes in Windows XP

INTRODUCTION

This article describes a step-by-step process for how to use the Powercfg.exe file in Microsoft Windows XP to create a power schemes Group Policy in a domain environment.

More Information

By default, users who do not have administrator rights and permissions cannot change power scheme settings. The power schemes program changes both per-user and per-machine settings. To change the per-machine settings, you must have administrator rights and permissions. Failure to set the per-machine settings prevents the per-user settings from being committed.

Therefore, if you are a user who does not have administrator rights and permissions, and you try to use the power schemes program in Windows XP to change the power scheme settings, you receive the following error message:

Power Policy Manager unable to set active policy. Access is denied.

Create a Group Policy object to change power scheme settings

To create a Group Policy object to change the power scheme settings, follow these steps:

On the domain controller, copy the Powercfg.exe file to the NETLOGON share.

By default, the Powercfg.exe file is located in the%systemroot%\System32 folder on a Windows 2003-based computer.

By default, the NETLOGON shared folder is located at%systemroot%\Sysvol\Sysvol\Domain_DNS_name\Scripts on a Windows Server 2003-based computer.

Note The first time that the user logs on to the user's computer, the policy will fail because the other rights and permissions have not taken effect. The second time that the user logs on to the computer, the policy is applied, and the user has permission to change the power scheme settings.

Configure user access to power settings

To deny permission to change the settings modified by the logon batch file, configure user access to the PowerCfg.cpl file. You can deny permission for the user to open the Power Options extension in Control Panel to view or to change the power settings. To do this, follow these steps: